Luther man is angry after he says OG&E poisoned more than 100 of his trees

LUTHER, Okla. – A metro man says OG&E showed up to his property without notice and killed more than a hundred of his trees.

“No, there’s no notice and that crew confessed, no we didn’t try to knock on your door or they didn’t try calling me,” said Steve Morse, who lives on a rural property near the turnpike. “There’s well over a hundred trees at least that they poisoned.”

Morse says he came home to find a crew on his property spraying his trees, which are near powerlines.

He understands if the trees needed to be cut back, but says spraying them to death wasn’t necessary.

“I don’t know, is this soil contaminated permanently or just what?,” said Morse.

But his biggest fear is fire.

“If someone was to throw a cigarette butt out on these dead trees, it would go up in a heartbeat,” said Morse, whose cabin burned to the ground during a wildfire several years ago.

Now, he wants OG&E to make things right.

“I think they should clean this up,” said Morse. “I think they need to clean up the mess that they’ve made.”

News 4 reached out to OG&E and a spokesperson told us a herbicide was sprayed on the trees, which makes them permanently dormant. She added that this will actually help lower the fire risk and is better for the ecology.

Regarding the lack of notice issue, OG&E said they will be looking into that and following up with Morse.

We also reached out to a tree contractor Morse says was at the scene. We have not heard back.